It's Spring With Minor Variation

The pros: They're playing ball

March 8, 1990|By Russ White of The Sentinel Staff

KISSIMMEE — Most of the faces at the Houston Astros training complex Wednesday were youthful - 19and 20-year-olds who dream of making it to the major leagues someday. Minor-leaguers today perhaps, but the big-leaguers of tomorrow.

Jeff Juden, 19, was the typical kid working out on this first day of spring training for 84 minor-leaguers, 67 pitchers and 17 catchers from the Astros' farm system.

The impasse between big-league owners and the players union for a new basic agreement and the owners' subsequent lockout this spring does not affect players such as Juden, a right-handed pitcher who was the No. 1 free-agent draft choice of the Astros last year.

He's not yet on the major-league roster but hopes to show enough talent in training camp to land a job with the Osceola Astros in the Class A Florida State League.

Left-handed pitcher Mark Thurmond, at 33 the granddaddy of Astros who worked out Wednesday, wore jersey No. 90, a well-worn shirt that bore no name on the back. (Thurmond's name, inked in late on a typed roster sheet, incorrectly was spelled Thurman.) ''It doesn't bother me I haven't got my name on the shirt,'' Thurmond said, smiling. ''Just being in an Astros uniform for the first time in my life is very satisfying to me. I dreamed about a day like this when I was a boy growing up in Houston. I don't know how the young guys here feel about being here today. As for me, I'm pleased . . . very pleased.''

A major-leaguer for seven seasons, Thurmond was released by the Baltimore Orioles after the 1989 season. He immediately began to negotiate with the Astros, who made him a non-paid, non-roster spring-training invitee. He'll get only room and board this month.

''We reached an agreement, but I did not get a major-league contract,'' Thurmond said during a lunch break Wednesday. ''Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. If I had a contract, I couldn't be here now. I'd be an active member of the players association and locked out of camp.

''Getting in here, getting a week, maybe two weeks' head start on the other pitchers will help my chances,'' Thurmond said. ''It isn't exactly how I wanted to become an Astro, but I'm here and that's the most important thing.''

A college baseball standout at Texas A&M, Thurmond began his professional baseball career after graduating in 1979. He made the big leagues with the San Diego Padres in 1983, winning seven games. A year later he was 14-8 and the starting pitcher for the Padres against the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series.

''My career has been a mixture of great and not-so-great moments,'' Thurmond said. ''I've been in the league playoffs with the Padres and then three years later with the Detroit Tigers. I started that World Series game. I was with the Orioles the last two years - one of them just brutal, the next one of the most amazing seasons a team ever had.''

Thurmond was 1-8 for the 1988 Orioles, who began the season by losing a record 21 consecutive games. ''All the pitchers were 0-6,'' he said. ''No one could hit, no one could catch the ball. It was a nightmare, and it seemed like it would last forever.''

The Orioles changed the beat around last year, however, and Thurmond worked in 49 games. His record was 2-4, and he had four saves. Proudly, he said Wednesday he walked only 17 batters in 90 innings. ''I contributed,'' he said. ''But they said goodbye. Just as well. I immediately called up the Astros.''

Because of the lockout, Thurmond not only gets extra time to show well, he may benefit from an expanded 28-man roster that major-league teams may employ once the real spring-training period begins. ''This would allow teams to have 12 pitchers for the first month of the season, a break for guys like me,'' Thurmond said.

Astros Manager Art Howe kept a keen eye on the players Wednesday. ''Until the other guys get here, I've got an opportunity to see what we have in our farm system,'' he said. ''If these guys wanted exposure, they've got it.''

Allowing the organization's minor-league coaches and instructors to run the drills, Howe and his major-league coaches merely observed Wednesday's proceedings.

Only a handful of fans showed up at the training site. One elderly gentleman said he was pleased ''a solution came and the players were playing.'' Told these were not the big-leaguers, he seemed disappointed.